Wang Kaiwen, an observer, encountered a similar problem in South Korea when Europe and the United States quarrelled over refugee issues.
The number of Yemeni refugees seeking refuge on Jeju Island in South Korea has doubled this year, fuelling anti-refugee sentiment in South Korea, while the number of refugees from Egypt is also on the rise.
The South Korean government has had to take a number of measures to urgently respond, after cancelling Yemen's visa-free status at the end of June, and announced on the 10th that visa-free entry permits for Egyptians to South Korea would be abolished as early as October this year.
According to Yonhap News Agency, among Yemenis who applied for asylum in South Korea from January to May this year, 527 entered South Korea through a visa-free Jeju island, up from 10 in 2016 and 52 in 2017, according to Yonhap.
Yemeni refugees at Jeju island immigration center, south Korea, from Yonhap news agency
Singapore's Straits Times said the surge in Yemeni refugees this year was partly due to the opening of cheap non-stop flights from Malaysia to Jeju, which gave Yemeni refugees a 90-day visa-free. They borrowed Kuala Lumpur to Jeju Island to apply for refugee status, hoping to use Jeju Island as a springboard to enter other South Korean cities.
Globally, between January and May of this year, an average of 71 people applied to the South Korean government for asylum every day, up 132 percent from the same period last year.
South Korea's anti-refugee sentiment heats up
South Korea acceded to the Convention relating to the status of Refugees in 1992 and announced the acceptance of refugees in 1994. The Refugee Act, adopted in 2013, made Korea the first country in Asia to enact its own independent refugee law.
Despite the government's willingness to open its doors to refugees, is South Korea, a single-nation state, really willing to accept refugees in the face of a multiplying number of refugees?
Recently, the issue in South Korea is very much quarrelling.
On June 13, South Koreans launched a petition on the official website of Qingwattai to oppose the Refugee Law and Cheju Island visa-free policy. As of July 12, more than seven hundred thousand people had signed joint petitions.
"Europe may have a historical burden on some countries (ex-colonies)," the petition wrote. But South Korea does not have such a moral obligation. "
Screenshot of petition website
According to a South Korean poll, nearly half of South Koreans opposed accepting Yemeni refugees, 39 percent said yes, and 12 percent did not, according to a Singapore Asia TV station.
Park Xiuying, a 20-year-old university student from Daejeon, said: "I heard that women's rights in Yemen are very poor, and I fear Jeju Island will become more dangerous and crime rates will rise," said Park Xiuying, a 20-year-old university student from Daejeon.
The interface news quoted the "South Korean Herald" as saying, on June 30, thousands of protesters held a rally in Guang Hua Mun Square, shouting the slogan "the people first, we need security", some with posters in their hands. The Yemenis on Jeju Island are fake refugees who are told to "get out of here right away," he said.
South Koreans say they envy Trump for doing "America first", saying South Korean President Moon Jae-in should follow suit.
Korean people protesting against receiving refugees in Seoul, Agence France-Presse